


Saying Hello

by FloreatCastellum



Series: Slice of Life One-Shots [47]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Teen Angst, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 15:53:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18672805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloreatCastellum/pseuds/FloreatCastellum
Summary: After picking his daughter up from the train station, Harry finds that he has managed to greatly upset her. If only he could figure out how.





	Saying Hello

He ignored the stares as he waited alone on the platform, hands in his pockets. He’d enjoyed watching the train shudder in, and the stream of students that were now pouring from it, clutching owls and cats and brooms and trunks, and now his excitement rose further. 

He spotted her red hair through the smoke of the train; the last of his children at Hogwarts, dragging her trunk towards him, her owl cage under the other arm. She spotted him and smiled as he waved, but then looked around with a frown as she approached. ‘Where’s Mum?’

'Didn’t you hear? The match in Djibouti is still ongoing.' 

'Still?!' 

'She’s desperate to get back, says she can’t cope with the heat. Hopefully they’ll get the snitch soon. Here, let me take that.’ He reached for her trunk, and she jostled with her owl, immediately launching into a quickfire run down of everything that had happened to her that term. 

They were just starting to walk away to the barrier, when a voice started calling her name from behind them. 

Harry turned, to see a lanky, olive-skinned teenage boy hurrying over, clutching a piece of parchment in his hand. He bounded up to Lily and smiled breathlessly at her. 'Hi,’ he said, his face lit up. 'I just wanted to-' 

He had glanced up at Harry, gulped, and fallen silent immediately. 'Hello,’ said Harry kindly. 

The boy gave an odd sort of nod at him, his lips pressed together, then he looked back at Lily and said, in a slightly higher, croaky sort of voice, 'I just wanted to say see you next term.' 

'Oh,’ said Lily, her smile faltering. 'Yes, see you next term, Adam.' 

The boy looked at the parchment in his hand, shoved it in his pocket, and hurried away. Though Lily stared after him, Harry simply raised his eyebrows and started dragging the trunk again. 'He seemed nice. Come on, I don’t have much time left on the parking ticket.' 

He completely missed his daughter’s furious glare, and obliviously led her through the magical barrier and out of King’s Cross station. 

It was not until he had got into the driver’s seat, with Lily already sitting moodily in the passenger side, that he realised anything was wrong. 'So what happened with that essay you were-?’ he began as he pulled out of the car park, but he was interrupted by her angry cry. 

'Why did you do that?' 

He took his eyes off the road to glance at her, dumbfounded. 'Do what?' 

'You terrified Adam!’ she accused, her ears turning pink in the same way Ron and Ginny’s always did. 

Harry thought for a few seconds, frowning at the heavy traffic as they crawled through West London. 'By… saying hello?' 

'Yes!’ she insisted unhappily, folding her arms and gazing sulkily ahead. 

'So… I should not have said hello?’ he asked slowly. 

She gave a growl of frustration and leaned her head back. 'Why couldn’t mum have picked me up? All the boys are terrified of you!' 

'Me?’ said Harry, genuinely baffled. 'Why?' 

Lily gave a splutter of indignation. 'Really? Really? I have to explain to you why they’re scared of the man who defeated Voldemort? The Head of the Auror department? The-’

'Well unless any of them are criminals, I don’t see how that’s relevant,’ said Harry. 

'It’s the whole overprotective father thing,’ she exclaimed. 'They’re convinced you’re going to interrogate them or curse them or-’

'Hey,’ said Harry loudly, slightly stung. 'I’ve never been like that, not once-’

'Well I know you haven’t, but they-’

’-You know I don’t care as long as you’re happy and safe, do you really think my marriage to your mum would have lasted if I were the type to start getting funny about short dresses or my daughter having boyfriends?’

'I don’t wear short dresses!’ Lily shrieked, gesturing with flapping hands. 'I inherited mum’s stupid little legs-’

'Your legs are fine, stop always moaning about your legs-’ he said, completely bewildered and wondering how on earth he had managed to cause such emotion. 

'You’re always scaring off any boy that shows the slightest bit of interest in me,’ Lily continued tearfully. 

Harry gaped at her, glancing between her and the road, genuinely lost for words. 'I just… I just said hello - what did you want me to do? What should I have done in that situation?' 

'Gone and waited on the other side of the barrier or in the car or something!’ she said furiously. 'Not just be- be standing there, being all weird-’

'So you wanted me to predict that a boy was going to approach you, know that you would be embarrassed by my presence, and just assume that you would find me in the car park?’ he asked.

Lily was silent. 'I don’t know,’ she said reluctantly, after a long, sulky pause. 

Harry was silent too, half confused, half ashamed. 'Can’t you… Can’t you just tell them to get a grip?’ he asked. 

She looked sideways at him, and he tried to ignore her withering expression. 'Tell them to get a grip?' 

'Yeah. I mean, you know I’m not like that, you know I wouldn’t be rude or intimidating to anyone you brought home… As long as they weren’t a Death Eater,’ he added, and he thought he glimpsed a twitch of a smile on his daughter’s sullen face. 'Can’t you just… tell them that? And really, do you want to be dating someone who quakes in fear every time I enter a room?’

'Not everyone can be brave,’ she said quietly. 

'Well they should at least try to be,’ he said flippantly. 

Lily sighed heavily, and they continued to drive in silence for a few minutes. 'Don’t you get it?’ she asked eventually. 'Weren’t you nervous around Grandad?' 

'No, of course not,’ said Harry. 'How could anyone be afraid of Arthur?' 

'Not afraid, but…’ she gestured uselessly with her hands. 'Or not even just Grandad, but all Mum’s brothers?’

'We all knew each other,’ said Harry, straining to remember if he had ever felt uncomfortable. 'The worst it got was them always trying to tease us, or some jokes about us, you know, only ever holding hands and you lot being immaculately conceived-’

Lily made a groaning, retching noise. 'Forget I asked.’

'They knew I loved your mum, they knew I wasn’t a bad person, and I never worried about them thinking otherwise, because why would they?’ continued Harry. 'I never gave them any reason to. If a boy is worried I’m going to uncover some nefarious intentions, that’s his problem. That’s not something I can control.’

'I know…’ said Lily in a small voice. 'I’m sorry.’ She sniffed. 'It’s just the first thing they leap to, you know?’

He sighed heavily. If he hadn’t have been driving he would have hugged her. 'No, I’m sorry. I know it’s hard, everyone knowing who you are and being in the public eye like that. You didn’t ask for it, and you shouldn’t have to deal with it. And,’ he hesitated, not quite believing what he was about to say, 'I’m sorry it discourages boys… I would like you to have a boyfriend, if that’s what you wanted.' 

'Melin,’ he heard her mutter, turning her head to look out the window, her freckled face scarlet. He winced, and wished his wife were there. 

'So what’s Adam like-?’ he tried awkwardly. 

'Dad, don’t.' 

'Right, sorry.' 

She sighed heavily, her head still leaning against the car window, and muttered, 'it would all be so much easier if they knew how lame you are.' 

She’d always been such a daddy’s girl growing up - always holding his hand and coming to him to ask permission for things, because she knew he’d end up saying yes. She had never seemed embarrassed by him before, and he had always been slightly smug that out of all the kids in the extended Weasley family, his daughter had been the most level headed, the least hormonal, and while, yes, she was a chatterbox, she had always just been so charmingly cheerful that nobody really minded. 

But, despite that, he found himself biting back a smile as he glanced at her scowling face. To be considered an embarrassing dad wasn’t the end of the world. Certainly, it was a problem he’d never expected to have. In a way, he almost treasured it. 

She leaned forward and fiddled with the radio, until she found potentially the most annoying song he had ever heard in his life. He sang along, and she begged him to stop. 

There she was, his beautiful, perfect, sixteen year old daughter - full of hormones and insecurities and embarrassed by her father famous for defeating a dark wizard. It was so gloriously, wonderfully, perfectly mundane.


End file.
